"I Know Who I Am, and Who I May Be, If I Choose"
~~"The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha"
by Miguel Cervantes
By Sheila Samples
"Sir, in regard to --"
"Who're you talkin' to?"
It was just a split second -- a collective intake of breath
-- but reporters genuflecting before George Bush last
April at Central Piedmont Community College in
Charlotte, North Carolina, got the message. They got it,
as Bush likes to say -- loud and clear. From that point on,
it was...
"Mr. President --"
Watching the media herd jostle to gain the attention of
the ill-natured and juvenile "Mr. President," it was difficult
to discern which was more pathetic -- an unprofessional
Bush delighting in forcing a reporter to grovel for access to
his wondrous self, or a professional journalist allowing
himself to be called "Stretch" while eagerly groveling.
The US media long ago abdicated their charter, that of being vigilant watchdogs over those in power, and of serving as
honest brokers and trustees of the public interest. Walter Williams, University of Missouri's first Journalism Dean, addressed this a century ago in his Journalist's Creed
wherein he wrote, "Acceptance of a lesser service than
the public service is betrayal of this trust."
Unfortunately, Williams did not foresee a need for having a watchdog over the watchdog. He believed -- as did so
many of us who emerged from Journalism classes
wide-eyed and bristling with determination to fall on our
ethical swords to protect the U.S. Constitution against all
comers -- that journalists inherently had the integrity to
police themselves, and any imposed control would be an
insult to the profession...
But while we weren't looking, the watchdogs over those
media Goliaths, "public service" is whatever it takes to
ramp up ratings and corporte profits. They apparently have
no qualms about circling their wagons around such a woeful failure as George Bush because he brings home their bacon
-- or he fronts for the guys who do. To those CEOs who
now own the mainstream media, biting the hand that feeds
them would be the ultimate betrayal.
Given his reality-challenged "vision" of ridding the entire
world of evil and riding shotgun for God by personally
delivering the gift of freedom to the few who remain, one
has only to look at the clueless, "look ma -- no hands" Bush
to suspect that making this guy look presidential -- or even remotely sane -- can be a chore. It's work. Hard work.
Really hard worky work...
The media appear to be dug in too deep to back out now. Although the hole they're in is scandalously deep and
wide, they have no choice. They must keep digging.
And digging.
They're forced to save Bush's backside in order to save
their own, else how will they explain at this late date their covering up the lies of a man-child who delights in being an international bully -- who applauds himself for irrationally
"seizing opportunities" to decide the fate of the entire
human race, no matter how much devastation he leaves
in his wake? How else can they defend hiding from the
public a monster-child teetering atop a mountain of body
bags containing the remains of almost 1,300 US citizens -- arrogantly braying he "would do it all over again" if he
had the chance?
The problem is not just with the fawning dogs in the media.
The rest of us are also to blame -- people who choose to
remain silent while hoping someone else will stop the
madness -- the jackasses in Congress who trot out the
theory that backing down, "swallowing their pride" and
moving to the middle will somehow garner them presidential favors. As Erasmus pointed out in The Praise of Folly,
"What is more courteous than the way two mules scratch
each other?"
Americans steadfastly refuse to notice the massacres
ordered by a mad commander-in-chief and carried out by a berserk defense secretary, even as their fellow citizens are
blown to bits in the process, and innocent men, women and children are gunned down in cold blood as they try to flee the carnage.
No one even blinked when Fox News military "analyst,"
retired Lieutenant General Tom Mc Inerney recently
diagnosed what our mission in Fallajua should be --
"We must be ruthless, especially in the area of collateral damage," he said self-righteously. "We shouldn't be
concerned about collateral damage. All the good civilians are gone. If we must make Falluja Carthage, then let's make
Falluja Carthage..."
It appears that truth can no longer be discerned by looking at things as they really are, but only through hysterical punditry wherein the most shocking and usually the loudest "opinion" wins. Those few who dare to speak out against war crimes committed in their names are accused of being unpatriotic --
of not supporting the troops, even as their continued silence ensures that more Americans are injured, maimed and slaughtered each day. The "troops" are dying because the
silence imposed by "Mr. President" and his attendant media courtiers condemns them to death.
Bush's pre-puberty vision is one of uberhuman heroes and knights whose power comes from a higher realm, and it is
far more colorful and exciting for the media to sell than the
more mundane scenario requiring reason and ulitity.
If you think about it, "Mr. President" is little more than a
deadly Don Quixote who, upon seeing a cluster of windmills,
cried to his squire...
"Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we could have
wished; for you see there before you, friend Sancho Panza,
some thirty or more lawless giants with whom I mean to do
battle. I shall deprive them of their lives, and with the spoils
from this encounter we shall begin to enrich ourselves; for
this is righteous warfare, and it is a great service to God to remove so accursed a breed from the face of the earth."
As Cervantes said of his ludicrous hero -- "The encounters between the ordinary world and Don Quixote are encounters between the world of reality and that of illusion, between
reason and imagination..." Cervantes explained that Quixote
got away with it because "There is a powerfully imposing
quality about Quixote's insanity; his madness always had
method, a commanding persistence and coherence.
He makes us feel a sense of inevitability beause of the
spectacle of remaining so unflinchingly faithful to his own vision..."
Like Quixote, it matters not a whit to Bush that he is
perceived as crude and uncouth, or that his actions are condemned by thinking people throughout the world.
What, after all, can they do to him? As "Mr. President,"
Bush revels in being master of the universe -- incapable of making mistakes -- scorning those who would hold him accountable. He has set himself, not only above,
but outside the law. If Bush is capable of feeling shame,
he is far more capable of shrugging it off. No problem there.
Unfortunately, there is no corner of the universe beyond America's borders where Bush is welcome. The US media
blacks out the hundreds, thousands -- tens of thousands --
of enraged world citizens who turn out en masse, armed
with insulting placards, to protest his setting foot on their
soil. Bush was literally chased out of Ireland in July by
cranky citizens and by rogue Irish journalists who fell
off-script to ask him why he thought he was so unpopular throughout Europe, and his trip to Canada last month was
beset with rumors of his possibly being indicted for war
crimes if he ventured near Ottawa...
Why do they hate him?
Bush boasts it's because of his freedom -- and he's right.
Because of his freedom to destroy homes, cities, entire
nations -- his freedom to bring death and destruction to
terrified civilians -- and his freedom to seize and occupy whomever and whatever he wants -- whenever he wants.
They hate him because of the mangled wreckage he leaves
in his wake, such as demanding that homes and businesses
along a route he was to travel in Nigeria last year be
bulldozed so that his vision would not be impaired by the
plight of the poor. They hate him because, while Nigerian residents watched in despair as all they owned was
destroyed, he spent 15 minutes in Uganda staring vacantly
at children infected with AIDS, promising billions of US dollars that, just hours before, his Republican minions in Congress
had voted to seriously curtail...
The silence of the media about the demands their president makes on other nations is deafening. The boorish audacity
of first demanding to address the European Parliament in the lead-up to the Iraqi invasion and then refusing to do so unless they promised him a standing ovation and guaranteed there would be no protests or heckling was completely ignored
by the US media, as was his recent opting out of addressing
the Canadian Parliament for the same reasons.
Cervantes would be green with envy at the clash between
illusion and reality that played out during Bush's London
visit in November, 2003. Although the Queen refused, Bush demanded that Buckingham Palace be renovated to include "bomb and airborne assault proofing" as well as blast and
bullet-proof windows and curtains.
Bush arrived with a protection squad of nearly 700 to bolster
the 5,000 British boots on the ground, 100 journalists, a
personal chef, a food taster, four cooks, medics and a
15-strong sniffer dog team. Special agents and snipers
were ordered to "shoot to kill" protesters who got out of
line. The giant windmills in London whirled so threateningly
that Bush and his journalists were in virtual lockdown at Buckingham, which is probably why there were no "public interest" articles written about this fiasco. When the
Blackhawks finally whisked them away, the Queen's prized, century-old rose garden was stomped and shredded beyond repair.
Why do they hate him? Don't even ask...
The silence of the media makes them willing participants in Bush's ghoulish slapstick-comedy worldwide crusade.
Likewise, Americans who remain silent are enablers who encourage him to go unhindered, splurging his political
capital on a bloody, open-ended genocidal spree.
Perhaps if we all chant and cheer and applaud Bush loudly enough -- if we stand, arms aloft and recite
we so richly deserve.
Perhaps we won't hear the scornful hisses of the rest of the world...
Ain't that right, "Mr. President"?
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma freelance writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a
Answers, as well as a regular contributor for a variety of
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